Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Hey family and friends!

This has a been a FAST week for us in Bratislava, the transfer is winding down and we're trying to get things tied up. This has been our "member week" and so we've been busy meeting with all of the members we could, sharing with them President Irwin's vision of what he wants to see in the mission. Basically, we're asking our members to share the gospel with their friends more and give us opportunities to practice teaching them. Our numbers this week looked pretty poor as a result of the member focus, but we're hoping to see big results in the coming weeks/months as the members help us more and more.

We are slowly watching more general conference and so far Priesthood session has been my favorite. I've really had to look at how I am cutting myself short from the privileges of being a priesthood holder. it really is something that if you don't use it, you lose it. We had the oppurtunity this week to give a blessing to a woman in the branch who has been pretty sick. She is a Slovenka who married a German and she usually reads from her German Book of Mormon and even taught her children to pray in German. It's interesting to me that some of these converts here who heard the gospel in another language still read the Book of Mormon in that language, rather then their mother tongue. Our Branch President said he connects English with his spiritual experiences, so he usually prefers to read the Book of Mormon in English, not Czech.

Saturday was Gabriel's baptism. He is a younger guy, 19, and has been taught for months. The missionaries tried to give him a baptism date about 7 different times. He refused each one. But when new missionaries came in he accepted their first invitation! He's a great guy and the branch will really benefit from having another priesthood holder. :)

Tomorrow we have training in Brno and Wednesday is our mission-wide contacting day! We haven't made a goal of how many people to contact, but we're again praying for miracles and hoping to see some great things.

Some shout-outs: a happy 22 to Katie Mills (err.. Katie Watkins) and a very happy one year anniversary to the Morris'! Wahoo! (ps, write me)

Thank you family for the birthday wishes already. For those of you who may have forgotten I'll be 22 on the 27! :)